PALADiN
PALADiN is an ongoing book series about an amnesiac sabarus alpha, the titular PALADiN, that somehow ends up as the conduit for divine power of unknown source. PALADiN roams the galaxy righting wrongs and meting out proper justice, though also faces moral quandaries and gradually learns that not everything is as black and white as they initially believed. The series is rather episodic in nature, but later books developed more of an overarching narrative about PALADiN finding out more of their past and the god that gave them their powers. There are currently six books in the series, and a seventh is being written. The series received a film adaptation in 4339 that combined aspects of the first two books together, but it was criticized for focusing more on the action and having little of the morals or religiosity that had become iconic of the series. Books Book One: Anamnesis PALADiN awakens to find their memory banks have been destroyed. However, when they leap to the defense of a village under attack from monsters, a mysterious divine power courses through their body. They successfully drive off the monsters and stay around in the town to help out, eventually unraveling a murder mystery and gaining the companionship of Rainflower, a reot who gives them the name PALADiN near the start of the book. Rainflower promises to stay by PALADiN's side until they reclaim their lost memories, as that's the duty of reots: To protect sabarus alphas. Book Two: Aflame On a supply run to the nearby city, PALADiN and Rainflower stumble upon a crashed spaceship. From the smoldering wreckage, they manage to save a single amulet with a curious glowing gem inlaid in it. Everything else seems to have been taken from the ship already. After asking around about it, they soon find themselves targeted by the saboteurs that initially made the ship crash, and rumors spread that they were the thieves that looted the valuables from the ship's ruins. PALADiN and Rainflower work to clear their names and uncover the truth of the crashed spaceship. Book Three: Between Shadows PALADiN and Rainflower, while traveling, discover the ruins of an old temple dedicated to a pacifistic god. Wondering if it might offer a clue to PALADiN's powers, they enter, and they find an old weary cleric who puts them through a series of tests before divulging any information. They eventually discover through the tests that the temple fell victim to a traitor -- and that the cleric himself was the traitor who killed all the rest. Though PALADiN initially is prepared to make a hasty judgment and bring the cleric to town for arrest, they reconsider and find out that the cleric did not have a choice in the matter. The temple had been besieged by "shadowy figures," and rather than suffer the others in the temple to break their doctrine and face scorn from their god, the cleric broke the law himself and made it look like a ritual suicide, prompting the attackers to eventually leave. Struck by the conflict, PALADiN decides to let the cleric go and face his god's judgment in time rather than that of PALADiN. Book Four: Origins Still mulling over the fate of the pacifist cleric, PALADiN resolves to find out more of their own god and what they are expected to do. Rainflower recommends they return to her home city, where there are lots of reots. After all, some of them could know something about at least when PALADiN was constructed, giving them a chance to reclaim some of PALADiN's lost memories. In the city, they discover that PALADiN was one of five sabarus alphas specifically built to become conduits for divine power -- and the builder was Rainflower's grandmother, Leaper. Just as PALADiN finds the files detailing the sabarus alphas' purpose and creation, they are accosted by an assassin of sorts. Though the assassin fails to take PALADiN's life, the file is stolen. In pursuit, PALADiN hunts down the assassin into the nearby woods, where the file is destroyed, and the assassin gruffly tells PALADiN to go to Rackina, the land of the sabarus alphas, if they wish to know "the truth". Book Five: Oathbreaker PALADiN and Rainflower head out for Rackina in hopes of finding more about PALADiN's origins. In Nodab, a fictional Rackinan city, they find the other four "awakened" sabarus alphas. However, all of them have broken their oaths to serve this god. At first, PALADiN attempts to bring them to justice for violating the law, but finds their powers vanish when they attempt to apprehend them. Now an oathbreaker themselves, PALADiN and Rainflower collaborate to restore the powers of all of the awakened alphas -- and but PALADiN's own powers still fail to manifest in a climactic battle against Rainflower, a traitor who had been trying to lure the awakened alphas together to in the name of an enemy god. PALADiN, considered useless for no longer having their powers, is thrown aside and discarded as Rainflower flees with the other four indisposed alphas. Book Six: Our Promise Reeling from Rainflower's betrayal, PALADiN goes into hiding, but locates the other awkwaned alphas in Beyne. They follow them there, trying to puzzle out if Rainflower truly is evil or if there is more to the story like with the pacifist cleric. Bit by bit, they uncover the story of the conduit alphas. Originally, they were constructed to see if sabarus alphas could become paladins -- for if they could, that meant a god saw potential in them. And if a god did, might that indicate sabarus alphas do truly have souls and have an afterlife in the arms of a god? However, Leaper's research was corrupted by the sinister enemy of the god that the awakened alphas served. To protect the research, it was locked away inside PALADiN, inaccessible even to the alpha to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. PALADiN meets Leaper herself and the lock is removed, and PALADiN's memories return. Emboldened by the return of their identity, PALADiN confronts Rainflower and defeats her in combat, but sheathes their sword, showing mercy to the oathbreaker. After all, if reots are to protect alphas, then alphas are to protect reots as well. This demonstration of mercy causes PALADiN's divine powers to return, and Rainflower escapes. Now tasked with uncovering the mystery of the god PALADiN worships and that of the god's enemy, it remains yet to be seen if Rainflower is truly evil or not -- and just what purpose the god saw in the awakened alphas. Category:Pop Culture Category:No Spoilers